[This article appeared in the October 2013 issue of The Theosophical Movement. For more articles published in this excellent magazine follow this link: http://www.ultindia.org/previous_issues.html ]
We seem to be churning out thoughts all the time. The purpose of a thought is to create, to affect a change and produce a meaningful reality. The potential of a thought has a close and direct connection with its purity. A pure thought is not fragmented, distracted or ripped by doubt and so is powerful. Just like the pure extract of a substance is strong, so that just a drop of it is sufficient, so also, a few concentrated thoughts can produce significant results.
Thoughts are like seeds, and like seeds they need the air of re-inforcement and repetition, the water of determination, and the sunlight of patience to grow into action. A task is realized when pure thoughts that head in the same direction are created, concentrated and then acted upon. Divergent and conflicting thoughts are like strong winds that cause the original sapling to droop. The waste thoughts, such as, thinking about the past, deliberating over others’ behavior or commenting on things that do not concern us, tend to dampen the passions ignited by pure thoughts. Pure thoughts are heart-to-heart. They arise from the pure core of a being and touch similar chords on reaching their destination.
Good wishes, which are consciously created thoughts for one’s own self and others, and which have immense power to transform circumstances, are the best example of pure thoughts.
Concentrated good wishes have the power to heal the hearts, damaged by acidic memories and bitter emotions. There is an urgent need to learn to create and sustain pure thoughts, because serving through the mind is the dire need in a spiritually polluted environment
of the world. In the quiet hours of the morning, it would be a good exercise to shower peace over zones of conflict, to spray spiritual love in the areas that lack harmony, and to send happiness to those who have lost hope and joy. (Purity, September 2013)
Thoughts are the seeds of Karma and are at the very foundation of our destiny. How do we build fate or destiny? “Sow a thought, reap and act; sow an act reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.” Destiny is woven in the minds of men with good and evil thoughts. One needs to transform one’s thinking and feeling and thus weave a better destiny.
Our good wishes and thoughts become more powerful when they are backed by strong will. H. P. B points out that every man or woman is endowed, more or less, with a magnetic potentiality, which when helped by a sincere and especially by an intense and indomitable will, can become the most effective magic lever in human hands. We should use that will to send out good wishes for the New Year to all. In Buddhism, Metta or loving kindness is a powerful positive emotion. We are asked to develop loving kindness towards all living beings. There must be overwhelming desire and wish, “May all the beings be happy.” Metta Bhavana meditation helps to cultivate loving kindness. In this meditation, one has to visualize the image of one’s own self, then the image of a friend, a neutral person, a “difficult person,” and send out thoughts of friendliness and kindness towards that image. In the last stage, one has to expand the circle of loving kindness so as to include all the people in the family, in the building, in the locality, in the office, in the city, nation, and the whole universe.
It can happen that we might be away from the place where help is needed, but our pure and noble thoughts could bring wonderful results, inducing others to act. Mr. Judge mentions that some of the orphanages in India are supported only by prayers. The thoughts of prayer are carried by strong, constant faith into the receptive minds of other people, who are then moved by the subconsciously injected thought to answer the request, and thus financial or other help reaches the orphanage.